mkatts19

Man that was hard trying to fit a tidbit into the title, haha. So I'm curious of anyone's experience at any school they went to or the experiences with nurses/instructors from specific schools. I'm basically hoping to hear something like, "My instructor went to School 505 and she knows everything," or "My co-worker also went to School 505 and she's incredible." I know there's the school ratings of the top schools but is it because they are actually taught more and know more or what? Essentially, I hope to be able to walk out of a program with knowledge that I didn't get from watching Youtube videos on the disease process. I don't even know if this is possible because I hated that our BSN program was all theory and nothing about what diseases and info we could teach our patients. I'm one of those people that want to know "everything" in a disease process. So when I studied for the NCLEX it was hard because I wanted to go in depth about why the mitochondria could affect the heart in heart failure (yes I know nothing related hah but just as example of the depth I was interested in). I would happily make the attempt to be a doctor but I absolutely love our schedules as nurses too much. I tried WGU. I don't mind it one bit and can finish it in 1-2 semesters if I wanted (had to drop out for a term for family/financial reasons last year). BUT if the education or informatics and what not is the same as the expensive schools, I'll happily go there again for less money. But if St. John's Wort's School leaves you with so much information to prepare you as an instructor, I would love to know that too and I would attempt to go to a school similar rather than online. Will I learn more from going to the #1 rated nursing school versus an online such as WGU? Or is no one teaching disease processes anyway and it's all about theory that I could care less about?

Hi! I'm from California, went to nursing school there and all but I go back and forth between there and Houston. What part do you currently live in now? Cost wise, it is NOTHING like how Houston is. There are huge houses for 200,00 but in California it's triple the price for a slightly smaller (but still large) home. What parts of Houston do you favor the most? IE Nightclubs, arts, recreation etc aside from the things you mentioned? I ask because I've lived in a couple places in Southern California and depending on what you're looking for, there's always something for everyone :).

I found that if people turn to the nclex books before actually learning the content, they're not learning what they need to be. Nclex is fine after you know the content, but not to start off with.

If you really know your information, you should be able to explain it or write it out. If you have a good friend or a study group going, then see if they'll study with you in this way: Explain to them the different topics you're covering. If you can't explain it, then are you really understanding it? Also listening to them explain something helps you study and when you're filling in what they missed, it's helping you as well. When you study a section, see how much information you can explain to yourself or write out on a blank piece of paper. It's not necessarily all about reading, highlighting and looking over notes though those play big parts. But ultimately, being able to start from scratch and tell everything you know to yourself or someone, is a good evaluator on how much you really do know for those tests and for the future.

Oh wow.. they held a place for you essentially then? That's pretty interesting! If you do get antsy though and just feel like you want to learn soomething, then YouTube health animations to get you (nerdy talk) "excited" about what you will be learning. There's all kinds of cool videos to help you with learning about diabetes, pregnancy, addision's disease etc. And they're pretty basic enough to not get you confused too early.

Much of the advice I heard of before nursing school was that if you can get into the straightest path, to go for it. If you can get into an ADN program, then why would you do LVN? Some people take LVN because they feel they need more experience or maybe at the time, that's what their schedule called for. If you're planning to go into LVN to boost your GPA, I'd say that's the wrong reason to do it. Boost your GPA through college coursework and the pre-reqs for the ADN program. Go ahead and apply to both LVN and ADN programs. If you find that one is a 2 year wait and the other is a 2 month... then you have a decision to make. If you get into an LVN program and while waiting to start, you get into an ADN one then, you have a decision. But aim higher. Not saying LVN is low at all, but level wise I mean... If you could get into a Masters program with just taking general college courses, heck yes all of us would try to get into that program rather than a BSN you know? But I've not been an LVN before, I went straight to BSN so everyone will have a different opinion/story. Just depends on what fits your situation the most and best :).

What does this person's opinion have to do with your application to the college? I ask because it doesn't appear that she has any say in what college you go to or the application process... unless I read wrong somewhere.

I could care less about the money because I've held other jobs that pay more and don't require the same grilling work as nursing... but at the same time, the money nursing pays does help with motivation. I personally want to travel so this field is one of the awesome ways to do it via travelling nursing. I want to be a nursing school teacher because so many of mine sucked like crazy, and if students have a motivating/happy/successful instructor, they're so much more likely to want to stay in nursing, not get discouraged and know the info they need to to be a successful nurse and teacher to patients. Also, I have a tendency to learn the information I'm studying too in depth.. to the point of thinking that I might as well be a doctor. But I don't want to be because it's not as personal and not as freeing as being a nurse. That makes me want to teach other nursing students as well as the patients in the hospital. Ultimately I want summers off lol, so that's why I want to be a teacher and maybe a school nurse in the process of the masters degree :).

I don't know how much help I will be.. but first and foremost, your understanding should come from your textbooks. If you understand it from there you should be able to answer majority of the questions for your assignment. To (hopefully) jumpstart some more thinking, consider: How does aldosterone differ from ADH? 1 of them holds onto 2 things, the other holds onto just 1.. which is which and what? what causes it in both situations? "but I can't figure out how to not use ADH in my answer for the aldosterone, because aren't they related in a situation like this?" What would taking in a concentrated solution vs an non-concentrated one do to your body and urine output? This would help you understand the outputs you get with the different solutions/amounts. When you understand the why's of that, you should be one step closer in answering your questions :). .What organs would be AFFECTED by too much aldosterone or too little? What would happen to them? What secretes it in the first place? And what would happen if this part of the body were to malfunction? What is the purpose of aldosterone and ADH? And how does it help or not-help the body? Answering these and getting the idea behind it will help you answer the other questions in your assignment as well. "I have to answer questions about which group(s) were affected by aldosterone secretion, the location of the target cells and how the aldosterone exerts it's effect." Hope this was of some help in some way!

It's all about understanding and not just 'reading' once you're in the med/surg/pharm land. If you can't explain it, then you don't really know it! I'm an organized person and a post it/agenda lover but I never really used it well in nursing school.. only at the beginning when I'd get excited about writing down schedules.. but halfway through the quarters I was not following any sorts of rules haha. I was the type to not study early because I wanted to take advantage of that tiny break we got between quarters. However it's different for everyone, some people love the headstart you can get during that time and by all means go for it if that's you! What kind of skills/clinicals are you getting into soon? It's a pretty broad category so different charts, info, supplements online etc are specific to which you are focusing on. I ask because I might have something I can send you directly or for the most part you can google stuff. My favourite thing to do honestly is to youtube the crud out of everything haha. I'm a visual learner too and whenever I need a study break but want to keep studying I'll watch a surgery or some fun/dorky animation about diabetes on youtube. It all depends what type of learner you are and what info you're about to learn in this upcoming quarter :).

I say yes as well but if you're worried about how you might feel or your instructor... then you can always wait until the end of the quarter. I get what you mean about possibly feeling like a suck-up or brown noser but honestly your personality is what proves whether you are one or not. I'm pretty sure the teacher will know right away whether you are one or not lol.. and most of the time those types of people reveal themselves early in the quarter! If anything, especially if you're shy like I am, you can always give them a note but just put your initials or sign it "an ever so grateful student" something like that. 1. You're not giving away directly who you are... 2. Helps you if you're shy/worried about what they might think though it's a nice gesture and 3. They're obviously going to know who you are anyway :) either through initials or remembering the 1 person they extended that deadline for! Either, way, the answer is yes.. the question of how and when is the topic :).

I personally never joined a study group... most people just diverged from anything nursing related and wasn't helpful at all. The practice questions for NCLEX are WAYYYY too early for you. You shouldn't even touch that until your 2nd or 3rd year, if anything not until you graduate. Do NOT JUST read your book. I know you get that a lot, but passing nursing school and passing boards is not about just reading and getting those 2 chapters read front to back before class starts.. You really need to UNDERSTAND the concepts and be able to apply them. If you can't explain hyptertension or addision's disease to someone.. you don't know the info as much as you 1. should and 2. can. Don't just read just to get the assignment done... read to get the info out of the book and in your head. That definitely is the number one way to study. Write the concepts out on a paper. If after reading a section you can't remember 3 topics from it? You didn't really study. Hope this helps a bit :).

My opinion is that it's not necessarily that the instructors are covering things you've never heard... It's that they're asking questions that need more than just spitting out the memorized info. Instead of just memorizing the info, see if you can apply it and understand it thoroughly before taking that test. You could always gather a couple students and literally ask the instructor why they test you on particular info when in your guys' opinions it was nowhere to be found in lectures or books. Maybe they'll point out where it was in the book, or how it was taught... or maybe they really did not teach about it. But I would say don't be afraid to ask.

I have to ask out of curiosity... A program accepted you even if you have been out of school of 3 years? I have to be honest and say I didn't even know that was possible. You might feel like you need to brush up on things, but all you're ever going to need to know will be told to you in nursing school. Well, that and so will the months studying for boards and actually being a nurse. :) The first quarter is going to be things related to the nursing field only and there's nothing you need to review really because it's specific to the job field. You probably will get dosage calculations, but how to do them will be explained in school. If you want to get a head start on diseases and what not, get books that go over fluids & electrolytes because that's your basics for literally everything. Some kind of problem with that leads to the diseases, and hey maybe knowing that will give you a heads up or an easier time in your med-surg courses. But I'd say don't stress too much on having been away from school. Enjoy your time till you have to give it up for nursing :).

A piece of advice I've gotten is that if you are getting more questions right than wrong.. you are still in the game. However, it wouldn't hurt you to extend your test date to get more prepared. You will never feel 100% ready for the test.. no one ever is.. but taking 2 more weeks to REALLY study will definitely make you feel more prepared than you are now. Instead of getting 9 questions right, you might get 15 right and that will really bring your confidence up before the test! Good luck, and study smart :).

Agreed with those saying to talk to an advisor. But NOT one from your junior college. You want to talk to someone in the nursing department. They know the types of students they're accepting so they're your number 1 best resource. However, I would tell you that if 20 students apply to a program and we can accept 15 only.... Would you rather take the 15 who have A's and B's or the students who have B's and C's? It's a harsh reality but there will be other people who have "better" grades and why would a school choose someone who has grades any less? However, yes most schools do go on a point system and just because you have straight A's doesn't always guarantee you a spot. You might get excellent reference letters versus mediocre ones and that might give you better points than the next person. Or you have 100 volunteer hours in a hospital but got all B's in that same year. I personally would rather accept the student who worked all year as a volunteer and managed to make B's than the student who did nothing but studystudystudy to get straight A's. You know what I mean? So each school is different. You taking the class over could be good for some (Shows that you wanted a better grade before applying.. wanted to really learn the info). or it could be seen as bad (You did so bad that you had to re-take the class). So in the end it comes down to talking to the school you're aiming to go to. I just wanted to give you examples of the good and bad. (In my case I did not get straight A's on pre-reqs... I got A's and B's.. and one C in micro).. however I assume I got additional points because of reference letters, volunteer hours, being bilingual, actually writing a decent admissions essay.. etc. Plus I had random classes (auto body, photography, dance) that I think (what I like to think haha), made the school see I was well rounded.. which is important down the line for nursing.

My guess is that even if you were to find photos, not many would listen. Otherwise half the world would have stopped smoking & drinking from seeing lung and liver damage photos. I know people who eat those chips and don't have GI problems as well. That particular food might be bad but so are a dozen other things and depending on that child's body.. it might have an effect and it might not. I see that you want to help/educate other kids/family in your school but the best thing you can do is talk to your kids about what you want them to know. Maybe they'll tell other kids about it... but then again if they go to school with soda and poptarts all the time, it's kind of the same boat as kids who have the hot cheetos and what not. It starts with you, your kids and health teaching with them even if you can't affect other kids as much as you'd like to as well .

As long as you know your basics... You are as prepared as you can be. It's going to feel easy now, which is good.. way better than being confused.. but in med surg you're going to learn how to apply everything you know. Why does the patient have hypocalcemia when there's more phosphorus in the blood? Which diseases are affected by too much calcium and what do these people look like when thy are? Stuff like that. On the boards, you have to be able to apply all the info not just spit it out, so that's awesome that your classes are hard! It will challenge you and make sure you know that info before you leave that school. The most fearsome thing is an easy class.. meaning they're not preparing you or they're not challenging enough. Who wants to be taken care of by a nurse who didn't get as much info/understanding as the one who had to know everything in order to pass? If you're ever finding that you can't understand a concept through their lecture, there's a lot of books that will help you understand it in their ways too aside from what they recommend :). Good luck! Remember to have fun during school too and not just focus on studying!

Nope, it does not get any easier!! Haha.. the first semester will always be the easiest, until you get to the 2nd year or so maybe 3rd and you get into public health or other areas that don't require a million hours of studying. But don't get discouraged just because it's hard! Nothing easy was ever as fulfilling as something difficult you conquered! :)

Typically, the most helpful classes are already listed in your pre-reqs for nursing school. If they don't require anything other than a cooking class then you probably aren't applying to a decent one lol. If they don't require anything past Micro & Bio, then that's a bit odd. 3 schools I was applying for all required Microbiology, A&P, and some required Chemistry, etc. Though honestly, when you're in the nursing classes you really don't remember all that you learned because the nursing level focuses on bigger steps and a bigger story than what you were taught in Chem, etc. If you do want additional help in preparing for nursing classes.. purchase books during school that will help you. However, I do recommend sociology & philosophy classes if you have the time. Nursing isn't just about medical things, but soooo many other ideas as well. Which you will learn more about in nursing school. To be able to be one of the few fully educated nurses, well rounded (Oh my! You know how to fix a car dent? Because of that random auto body class you took in college?), puts you in a category outside of "regular nurses" who just know what they need to know. You might have that one random thing in common with a patient who refuses to listen to any other nurse... until they found you who they can talk to about their work in the auto field. Totally random story but the idea is just take classes in other things not medical related. Speech is definitely helpful because you'll always be talking to patients... English classes because you'll be doing a lot of writing in school. But as I said, these are in your pre-reqs for a reason :). Other than what's required in your pre-reqs, you won't need much more pre preparations other than to keep you sane (dance classes if you like them, photography etc).

When I was in clinicals, I used to put on the BP cuff inside out.. not because I was stupid or didn't know my stuff.. i just was that nervous at times. But, I can remember the times an instructor saw me talking to a patient and would tell me she never really sees people educating their patients the way I would. I would literally want that patient to learn what I was talking to them about and not just because it was on my care plan to do so. You may not feel like you have the "technical" skills down as much as other people appear to have.. but you probably have other qualities that they do not have. You might be more personable because you have not have to focus on using the skills during school.. that means you're easier to talk to from a patient's point of view and they're more likely to listen to you. When it comes time for you to interview at a job, I believe the RIGHT job will see that. They're supposed to know that some grads come in with work experience and some don't. We all start off at the same level in some way. They might want experience but they might get a reference from a teacher for you saying awesome things that no other interviewee had (though they "had the experience"). You just never know :). It's okay to feel discouraged because when you get hired somewhere you will feel 100% times better about it! You have made it this far for a reason.. and if you weren't meant to.. you would have failed a long time ago!

Everything I liked about nursing I ended up hating during nursing school.. and stuff I didn't know I'd like.. I ended up loving. I'm with this person! Stick with it.. it might feel like a mistake/don't know what you're doing at first, but eventually you feel like you made the right choice :).

The experience is different for every person. I wanted to quit nursing school (BSN) so many times.. and even literally got a chance to go into a different nursing program (ADN) during my 3rd quarter at the university level. I thought it was God's sign basically saying, if you want out, get out.. but you still have a back up. If you don't believe in God, I apologize for the reference, but pretty much whatever you believe in apply it to that :). I was the "slacker" all through nursing school.. I didn't study as much as the next person, I barely passed my classes.. I went out to clubs and what not. And I got judged for that because I supposedly wasn't taking it too seriously. But how many people can say you were taken aside several times during the year by a teacher to be told, "You know you're going to be a really great nurse because..." when they saw something about you in clinicals when you actually interacted with patients. If I wasn't meant to make it then I would have failed those classes. You are always going to feel down, and depressed sometimes.. I had random breakdowns of crying and freaking out and wanting to quit.. but that's why you need to have a support group of not only your family, but at least 1 or 2 or more other nursing students who know EXACTLY what you are going through. No one else will understand your situation like they do. I definitely think you should STAY in the program. The fact that you are going through all these emotions and thoughts and situations means you CARE. It's going to be hard now but everything worthwhile has it's hardships.. otherwise it wouldn't be as rewarding to finish!! That's why we're all so 100000% thrilled on that graduation day! And as for being an actual nurse, you make it what it is. Some are ****** off all the time, and some love their job for the patients, some for the money.. each person is different and how you are makes YOUR job. If you truly try in all your classes and all your tests and you end up "failing" then yes, maybe it's a sign it's not for you.. BUT you made it into the program for a reason. So many people want to be in your place.. stay strong and look for support as you have here on this site. Get a life (literally) DON'T just studystudyschoolstudy. If you have a significant other, make sure you spend time with them.. if you love soccer games make sure you play at least once a week. That helps ease the stress of school.. and who knows you might meet another soccer player who's in nursing school and you can help each other get through the problems with a common love. It's possible! But stay in it until outside situations give you a reason not to!

Hurst's Pathophysiology book is great too! I'm actually using it to review for the boards so if you need any additional help in understanding some of the disease processes, let me know! Honestly, to pass your tests in school you really have to bear down and study.. truly understand what you're required to know. It helps you on those tests and in the long run when it is time to study for boards. Give yourself time to really read and understand.. that's the best and truly the only way to pass those tests.

Mine is the following day and I did the same with not telling people who know me :) They know that it'll be this month, but the exact date. Good luck with yours! :)